T'A'^?^,?^y^ Oliver T, 






Class ^n ^ 



Book T54 



(STbc Sanitjcrgitp of ^t)icaflo 

^ERSITY EXTENSION DIVISION 

l.ECTURE-STUDY DEPARTMENT 
No. 22.— Price, io Cts. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF 
THE MIDDLE AGES 



V ■ 



SYLLABUS OF A 
COURSE OF SIX 
LECTURE-STUDIES 



BY OLIVER J. THATCHER, A. B., 

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION INSTRUCTOR IN HISTORY 



<^ht saninetj^it? |9re^j9 of C?)icago 
WonograpK d. c. heatm & co. 

CHICAGO, BOSTON, NEW^YCRK.ANO LONDON* 



:i\ 



EXERCISES. 



1^ 



Topics for exercises are given at the end of the outline of each 
lecture. Answers in writing, to not more than two questions each 
week, are invited from all persons attending the lecture. These 
should be written on one side of the paper only, a broad margin 
being reserved on the left. The name of the centre, with some 
signature of the writer, should stand at the top of the first page. 
The exercises should be sent to Mr. Oliver J. Thatcher, The University 
of Chicago, so as to arrive at least two days before the following lecture. 
They will be returned at the Class, the following week, with such 
marginal and oral comments as they seem to require. There will 
be an Examination at the end of the course for students who 
desire to take it ; and the credit given for this coiirse will be based 
jointly upon the Exercises and the Examination. 

Any of the books referred to in these lectures may be obtained 
at special rates from The Univevsity Press of Chicago, Chicago, 
111. .Prices will be quoted on application. 



BOOKS WHICH SHOULD BE READ IN CONNECTION 
WITH THE COURSE. 

Sheppard — The Fall of Rome and the Rise of New Nationalities. 
KiTCHiN — History of France. 
Perry — The Franks to the Death of King Pepin. 
DuRUY — History of the Middle Ages. 
Stille — Studies in Mediaeval History. 
CuTTS — Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages. 
Durham — Europe during the Middle Ages. 
Bryce — Holy Roman Empire. 
Church — Beginning of the Middle Ages. 
Emerton — Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages. 
Hallam — Europe during the Middle Ages. 
Gibbon — Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 
Kingsley — Roman and Teuton. 
Rusk — Mediaeval Popes, Emperors, etc. 
•Greene — History of the Middle Ages. 
Chatfield — History of the Darker Ages. 
SCHMITZ — History of the Middle Ages. 

CuRTEis — History of the Roman Empire from Theodosius to Charle- 
magne. 
Lavisse — The Political History of Europe. 
HoDGKiN — Italy and Her Invaders. 
HoDGKiN — Theodoric the Goth. 



Copyrighted, 1892, by the University of Chicago. 



LECTURE I. 

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLES. 

I. Europe. 

a Its coast and water-ways. 

b Its plains and mountains. Natural boundaries. 
/ The varieties of its climate. 
II. The Peoples. 

a The Romans. 

1. Their extent. From the Atlantic to the Euphrates. Rhine 
and Danube on the North. 

2. Their government, an euj^pire. The principle of Abso- 
lutism. Free cities oppressed, their officers became the 
officers of the Emperor. Heavy taxes. The free citizens 
were ruined. Increase of misery. 

3. The policy of Rome toward the subjugated peoples, to 
Romanize them. Extent of this process. 

4. Roman civilization, cities, roads, travel, commerce, litera- 
ture. Greeks and Romans. 

b The Celts. 

1. Their location, west of the Rhine, Great Britain. Formerly 
almost to the Weser, and Central Europe to Vienna. 
Three inroads upon the South. 

2. Their government, an aristocracy. The power of the 
priests. The people as slaves. Not one state but many. 

3. Their character ; love for the gaudy, music, poetry ; bold, 
dashing warriors ; fine, powerful figures ; (the " Dying 
Gladiator"); lived in cities. 

c The Germans. 

1. Their location, at first around the Baltic; their removal 
to the Black Sea, the Danube, the Maine and the Rhine. 

2. Their government; many tribes under kings or dukes, 
which were elected. The assembly of the tribe, of the 
hundred. No priest caste. Three classes: nobility, free- 
men and slaves. The comitatus. 



4 BEGINNINGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 

3. Their faults were love of war, of the cup, of gambling. 

4. Hunting, farming, cattle raising; lived in the country. 
d The Slavs. 

I. Their location, east of the Germans whom they followed 

to the west and south. 
?. Their government, many tribes broken up into small 
bands without political connection. Their leaders were 
elected. No nobility among them. The influence of 
the "elders," led to the usurpation of power. Constant 
strife among them. 
3. Their character, unwarlike, peasants, large and powerful, 
had idols; a priest caste. Not a strong national 
character, easily Germanized. 
e The Letts. 

/ Finnic — Turkish Tr/bes. 
III. The Christian Church. 

Its organization ; its attitude to the State ; Constantine and 
Gratian. 

EXERCISES. 

1. Describe the Germans. 

2. Describe the policy of the Romans toward the conquered 
peoples. 

3. Describe the Slavs. 

4. What has nature done to promote commerce in Europe ? 



LECTURE II. 

y the migrations OF THE NATIONS. 

\ 1. Their Causes. 
-s^^ a Hunger. 

b Over population. 
c One tribe sets another in motion. 
d Their ideas about the South. 
II. The West Goths. 

a About 373 A. D. the Huns attacked the Goths on the Black 
Sea and the Danube. The East Goths submitted, the West 
Goths crossed the Danube and settled on Roman soil. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



Ill 



IV. 



VI. 



b They revolted 378. Battle of Adrianople, death of Valens. 

Theodosius quieted them. 
c Alaric made king. Revolted 395 ; Alaric led them through 

Thrace, Macedonia, Greece, and up into lUyricum, where 

they settled. 

were driven back into 



</ In 402 they invaded ." 

lUyricum. 
e Again invaded Italy 4' 

Africa. Death of Alaric 
/ His successor, Athaulf, i 

led his people into S. Fr 
g His successor, Walia (41 

the West Goths. 
The Alemanni attacked Ga 
Rhine and the Danube an( 
The Alani, the Suevi, and the 
into N. France ; moved tc 
and were subjugated by At 
Vandals went into Spain, 
into N. W. Spain, and the "N 
80,000 Vandals under Kii 
the N. coast, the islands 
Italy and sacked Rome. 
The Burgundians settled ne^ 



S, sacked Rome. Plans against 
• ^^- ^rnzri, 410. His character. 

\ with the Emperor and 

pain. 

blished the kingdom of 

) ; settled between the 
;o North Switzerland, 
rossed the Rhine, 406, 

where the Alani settled 
^alia. The Suevi and the 
t Goths drove the Suevi 
to Africa. In 429 A. D. 

invaded Africa, took all 
Mediterranean ; invaded 

'the scene and theme of 
the Niebelungen Lied), 407, moved South to the Jura region; 
Geneva their capital. 
Attila. His great empire of the Huns. Threatened Constanti- 
nople. Invaded the West. Defeated, 451, near Chalons. 
Invaded Italy 452, his death 454. The end of his empire. 



EXERCISES. 

Describe the route of the West Goths. 

What were the causes of the migrations ? 

What effect did the battle of Chalons have on the destiny 

of Europe ? 



BEGINNINGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



LECTURE III. 

THE MIGRATIONS OF THE NATIONS CONTINUED. 

I. The East Goths. .^ 

a Rome and Constantif?ple. Two Emperors. Odovaker 
and the Heruli. The end of Romulus Augustulus and 
the_ reumon of the Elai and the West. The position of 
Odovaker. 

b Theodoric the Gref>\ 488-526 (Dietrich of Berne). His 
connection with ^^ . n"stantinople. Invades Italy 488, 
murders Odovaker 493, His German policy. Marriages 
and alliances. Hi| g>-;at power, government, attitude to 
the Romans. B^thius, Cassiodorus. His character. 
II. The Franks. .|| 

France and Belgium luli 'of small independent tribes. The 
king of one of these, Chlodowig, 481 -511, united them by 
force. The first o* *^he Merovingian line. "Franks," a 
collective name. 

III. Britain and the Anglo-Saxon Invaders. 

a A period of piratical invasions till 449. 

b The Jutes in Kent. 

c The South Saxons. 

d The West Saxons. 

e The East Saxons. 

/ The Angles, North-folk and South-folk. The Middle 
Angles. The Northumbrians. 

g The Britons driven back into Wales, called Welsh, Kymry. 
Their treatment at the hands of the foreigners. 

h Anglo-Saxon government. Kings. The folk-moot. The 
hundred -moot. The township. Trials, compurgation, 
ordeal. Punishments, Weregild. Eorls, Ceorls, Gesiths, 
Thegns. Disposition of the soil, "ham," "tun." 



BEGINNINGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 7 

EXERCISES. 

1. Describe the work and character of Theodoric the Great. 

2. Describe the government among the Anglo-Saxons. 

3. Name the tribes that settled in England and give their 
place of settlement. 



LECTURE IV. 

THE NEW' CHRISTIAN STATES. 

I. The Christianization of the Germans. Effected by traders, 
soldiers, captives, missionaries. Ulfilas. The Arian type. 
II. The Relations of the Invaders to the Conquered Peoples. 
a Religious hostility, Arians and Catholics. 
b Conquerors and vanquished. . 
c Barbarian contempt and Roman pride. 
d The seizure and division of the soil. 
e Taxes. 
/ The value of the life of a German above that of a Roman. 

III. The Suevi, 419-585. 

Their kingdom loosely bound together. Slowly mingled 
with the conquered. The crown was elective ; that led to 
internal wars. 516 they became Catholic; that led to war 
between them and the West Goths. Their defeat. By 
585 the Suevi were subjugated by the West Goths. 

IV. The Vandals, 429-534. 

Their king, Gaiseric, a great general. Ruled the West 
Mediterranean. A powerful kingdom. Weakened by 
quarrels about the crown, by the change of climate, 
luxury, licentiousness. Treated the Roman subjects with 
great cruelty. Attacked by the Moors. Easily con- 
quered, 534, by Belisarius. 
V. The West Goths, 415,-711. 

Some able kings; Theodoric 1,419-51; Euric, 466-83 ; 
Leoegild, 569-86; Reccared, 586-601. 509, driven 
out of France. The character of their laws. The influ- 
ence of the clergy. Destroyed by the Mohammedans, 
711. 



8 BEGINNINGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 

VI. The East Goths, 493-555. 

Theodoric the Great, 494-526. His good reign, the pros- 
perity of the kingdom. The war with Justinian. Witiges 
and Totilas, able generals. Narses recovered all Italy for 
Justinian 555. 

VII. The Burgundians, 413-534. 

Gundobad, their greatest king, d. 516. Conquered by the 
Franks, 534. 
VIII. The Alemanni, 369-496. 

Conquered by the Franks. 
IX. The Franks. 

In 496 became Orthodox Christians. Effects of this. 
Syagrius, the last of the Roman officials, driven out, 
486. A period of conquest ; all the petty kings between 
the Loire and the Garonne by 507. The Alemanni, 496. 
The Burgundians, 534. 
X. Germanic Law. 

Personality of Law. The barbarian codes. 

EXERCISES. 

1. Describe the Christianization of the Germans. 

2. What were some of the hindrances to complete union of 
the Germans with the peoples among whom they settled ? 

3. In what respects did German law differ from Roman ? 



LECTURE V. 

THE TEUTONS IN DANGER. 

I. The Reaction against the Germans under Justinian, 527-65. 

Justinian and the factions in Constantinople, the Greens and 
the Blues. His services to Roman Law; i) The Codex, 2) 
The Institutes, 3) The Pandects, 4) The Novellae. All in 
the spirit of absolutism. 

His policy, to destroy the Germans and reconquer the 
West. His conscious anti-German policy. His successes 
in Africa, in Spain, in Italy. His success checked by 



BEGINNINGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 9 

II. His Wars with the Persians. 

III. The Invasions of the Bulgarians, a Turanian people that settled 

among the Slavs along the Danube. These threatened Con- 
stantinople, and Justinian's army had to be recalled from 
the West. 

IV. The Avars, who invaded the territory of Justinian. They made 

a great invasion to the West, and settled on the middle 
Danube. 
V. The Slavs, who occupied much of his territory. They invaded 
and settled in Greece, Illyricum, Thrace, the Upper Danube, 
and Germany as far as the Elbe. 
VI. The Lombards (a German people), who invaded Italy and took 
all North Italy from the Emperor, 568. In 573, took Pavia 
and made it their capital. Took Spoletum and Beneventum. 
Built their castles in the cities ; effect of this. But could not 
unite all Italy. The Emperor held Ravenna and South 
Italy, and the Pope held Rome. 
VII. The Franks, who rapidly increased in power. Their high 
estimate of themselves. Their many conquests. Theudebert, 
534-48, wished to make an expedition against the Emperor. 
The beginnings of an aristocracy. Aristocracy of office, of 
wealth, of influence. 

EXERCISES. 

1. Describe the policy of Justinian toward the Germans. 

2. How successful was he in this ? 

3. What prevented his carrying it out ? 



LECTURE VI. 

THE GROWTH OF THE PAPACY. 

Gifts" in the early church. Business, oppression, heresy, etc., led 
to the formation of offices. Each congregation had a bishop. 
The capital of a province was the seat of an archbishop. 
Peculiar honor attaching to Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, 
Constantinople (Ephesus and Corinth), and Rome, because of 
their supposed connection with some Apostle. 



lO BEGINNINGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 

II. Causes of the Growth of the Power of the Bishop of Rome. 

a Rome, the capital of the West. 

b No competition with other bishops in the West. 

c No Emperor in Rome, but the Emperor invested him with 
political rights. 

d The Roman Church believed to have been founded by 
Peter; the Bishop of Rome his successor and heir to all his 
powers and prerogatives. 

e The congregation at Rome was large, rich and very liberal. 

/The supposed orthodoxy of the congregation and of. its 
bishops. 

g The action of the Council at Constantinople, 381, and at 
Chalcedon, 451. 

h About 510, Dionysius Exiguus collected the canons of 
previous Councils ana the decrees of the Popes, putting 
them on about the same level of authority. 

/ The Roman Catholic conquest of the West. The Bishops 
of Rome tried to convert the Arian Germans. Sent 
Augustine to the English, 597. Used English monks to 
Christianize the Germans and bind them to the Church of 
Rome, also to bring the French into subjection to the 
Church of Rome. The work of the Irish. 

j The Emperor lost power in Italy, the Pope gained corre- 
spondingly. His position in Rome. Allies himself with the 
Lombards, the Greeks, or the dukes of Spoleto and Bene- 
vento, as his interests demanded. 

k In 730 Gregory II put the Emperor Leo III under the 
ban, and set forth the principle that the affairs of the 
Church are to be managed by the Popes, not by the 
Emperor. 

EXERCISE. 

Describe any three of the causes which favored the growth 
of the Papacy. 



